Abstract The paper presents numerical analyses aimed at preliminary assessment of the protective panel effectiveness, which task is to protect the elements of building structures against explosion. For the criterion of assessing the effectiveness of the panel the load capacity of the column made of steel I-beam was chosen. Ultimate force was determined by using advanced computational procedure, which consisted of four stages: preload, blast simulation, dynamic response and static analysis of deformed structure. Blast load was simulated using Lagrangian- Eulerian domain coupling. Results indicated that the application of the protective panel significantly reduces the plastic deformation of the structure.